Arsenal To Play Chelsea In Capital One Cup 4th Round| Injury Good News For Arsenal

Arsenal are safely through to the 4th round of the Capital One Cup after triumphing over West Brom at the Hawthorns. The Gunners took the lead through Thomas Esfield for his first ever senior goal for Arsenal, assist coming from Bendtner but the Baggies equalized when their striker nodded in a cross from close range after been left unmarked. The rest of the normal time didn’t yield any goal, the additional 30 minutes couldn’t separate the sides. Hence, penalty shootout. Arsenal were successful with all their penalties except Gnabry’s. Fabianski didn’t save any but he forced two of West Brom players to fire wide.

The reward for our triumph is a date with Chelsea in the 4th round. The casualty of the 3rd round was Liverpool after they were edged out by Manchester United. Either of Arsenal or Chelsea will be the casualty of the 4th round. I hope it’s the latter and not us. Wenger has never beaten Mourinho, this will be a very good time to get one over the boisterous Portuguese.

Yesterday’s match availed us the opportunity to see Bendtner in Arsenal’s colours after 2 years on loan voyage elsewhere. Nothing has changed about the Dane, he is still as lacklustre, lazy and wasteful as the Bendtner of old. The only thing that has probably changed about him is his looks. He now wears beard.

We are looking for an adequate back –up for Giroud but it seems Wenger will have to look further on. The Dane isn’t just good enough. His work rate is poor and he still lacks decent cutting edge. His only notable contribution yesterday was the assist. He had a good chance to win the game for Arsenal at regulation time but dithered too long, allowing a West Brom defender to steal the ball from under his noses. I wonder why Wenger didn’t give Park Chu Young a run out in the side. I doubt if he could be worse than Bendtner was.

To other news, there’s an update on the injury situation at the Emirates. Starting with Santi. The Spaniard has revealed he should be up and running within a week. Though he played down chances of featuring against Napoli but said chances of him returning against West Brom are rife.

“I will be fit maybe in one week, I hope I can play at West Brom.”

(Santi Cazorla on twitter)

On Walcott, it is also a positive news. Wenger revealed the minor surgery he went for in Germany was successful. We miss the English star and cannot continue to depend on Gnabri.

“Walcott had surgery and it went very well. He’s coming back (from Germany) Thursday so it’s what we expected there were no complications.”

On others, it seems Rosicky will be the first of the lot to return. Though his return will not be in time for the battle at the Liberty Stadium.

“Rosicky is the first back [of the injured players], but not in time for this week. Next week we will start to speak about that. He could come back in the squad for Sunday or Monday.”

Of the trio of Podolski, Chamberlain and Diaby, the German seems to be the first back, according to Wenger, Chamberlain still have a month and half before he returns to fitness.

I can’t wait to have them all back. With us having huge fixtures after the international break against Chelsea, Liverpool, Manchester United and Dortmund. Am eager to see what Arsenal’s midfield and attack will look like with Cazorla, Rosicky and Podolski fit.